Yesterday we visited a Buddhist temple. This wasn't originally on our itinerary, but since so many families were interested our guides fit it in before our big shopping spree. Many adoptive families like having their babies blessed by the Buddhist Monks, which is customary of the Buddhist religion. And since we learned that around sixty percent of Chinese are Buddhist, that makes for a lot of baby blessing ceremonies!
There were only two of us families who chose not to have our babies blessed (out of the families in attendance on this outing). Rick and I had no desire to have Malia blessed in this way. We already know she is blessed by our God. Afterall, He is her Creator and Life Sustainer! Spencer was apprehensive about us even looking into the temple since we watched the ceremony. But I thought it was very interesting to see. We even saw several Chinese burning incense and placing sacrifices on an altar in front of the temple. We were told that people come to these Buddhas when they are confused and need answers. Sad. All I could do was pray for them.
Here we are by a very unique piece of nature on the temple grounds ...
Then it was on to the real meaning behind this outing ... shopping!!! Our guides took us to the pearl and jade markets, which are located inside a big shopping complex. One of our guides, Simon, is very knowledgeable about jade, so he took us to a store that he trusts very much and helped us pick out jade pieces. This is the store ...
I got Malia a jade stone in a circle shape. Simon told us this shape is very common in China, especially because it can represent the Buddhist belief of a forever life. However, my thoughts are geared more towards the fact that Malia is joining her forever family.
Then it was on to the pearl store ...
Here we purchased Malia a beautiful strand of pearls and matching drop earrings. All of this jewelry will be given to Malia at various special occasions in her life.
I'm not sure why, but Rick was all sweaty and shaky during this whole trip. ????
1 comment:
So was Brad when we visited the Jade store in Taiwan (and for good reason :)) We visited a Buddhist temple as well and we felt a very heavy presence. I prayed the entire time we were there for those who were offering sacrifices and for those who would be coming later. It is so sad!!!
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